Quote:
Originally Posted by LoriAnn
The VA healthcare delivery system is not comparable to the Medicare system. The VA is a socialized system where every person delivering the care is employed by the government. That is why they are under such scrutiny for long waiting lists for care in some regions. A Single payer system with Medicare in the United States could never be compared to a single payer system in another country. In the United States, the vendors such as Physicians, Hospitals, Clinics, Home Health, DME will always be privatized which gives incentive for more vendors to enter the market. The more eligible Patients, the more vendors eager to provide the care. Regarding regulation of private insurance companies, it's minimal. They are taken to task once in a while over high profile cases ,but, for the most part they have found ways to skirt around the regulations. Some are so reluctant or slow to pay claims that entire hospital systems have stopped accepting their insurance. Medicare always pays. I've been in healthcare delivery for 40 years and I have never witnessed one person FIRE Medicare.
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"In the United States, the vendors such as Physicians, Hospitals, Clinics, Home Health, DME will always be privatized which gives incentive for more vendors to enter the market. The more eligible Patients, the more vendors eager to provide the care."
Really?
The Mayo Clinic stopped accepting Medicare at its five-physician practice in Glendale, Ariz., two years ago. Officials said at the time they would analyze financial results of the move early this year.
No results yet. Mayo spokesman James McVeigh said in an e-mail: “Our plan is to continue to study the program, collect data and review the impact on our patients.”
Mayo officials, who were unavailable at deadline, need more time to analyze how the Arizona clinic's decision to drop Medicare affected its finances, patient satisfaction and the overall number of patients, he said.
Mayo officials faulted Medicare for the move when they first announced plans to stop accepting the insurance.
“Mayo Clinic in Arizona loses a substantial amount of money every year due to the reimbursement schedule under Medicare, a loss we cannot continue to sustain,” the health system said on its news blog.
“The discrepancy between what Medicare pays and our cost of providing services is particularly acute for our primary-care practices.”
Mayo also told the Bloomberg news service the clinic's finances would be examined under the pilot “to see if it could have implications beyond Arizona.”
Mayo Clinic operates in Arizona, Iowa, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin."
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/arti...GS01/301209984
SO.
Medicare payments less than the costs of providing the care is going to "incentivize more vendors to enter the market"??
Why? So they can go bankrupt and be unable to pay themselves and their employees who need jobs?